Best Polaroid Camera for Weddings

We love Polaroid cameras, we shoot Polaroids at weddings but when you want to leave a Polaroid camera out for your guests, which is the best Polaroid camera for weddings?

Depending on your needs and how technophobic your guests are, there’s a few options on the market at the moment:

FUJI’S INSTANT CAMERAS

Fujifilm Instax Wide 210 Camera Not a Polaroid camera but Fuji’s answer to instant photos. This is an excellent camera with very consistent results. It’s one of the cameras we see the most at weddings and it’s ideal if you’re looking for a Polaroid camera for photobooths as it’s very straightforward to use. The film is also (and very importantly) cheap to buy and can work out to around 70p per photo… pretty cheap in the instant camera world! What you won’t get you’re unlikely to get is that dreamy, ooey gooey Polaroid vintageyness – you know the look! – but that’s why it’s ideal for photobooths instead. Fuji’s most basic instant camera, the Instax Mini 8 comes in at a very reasonable £60ish as well so you’ll not have to worry about it getting trashed in a drunken haze come midnight!

SHOOT FROM PHONE , PRINT ON POLAROID

If you’d like more control over your Polaroid shots, why not go for Fuji’s Sp-1 printer? It allows you to take photos on your mobile phone, edit and adjust them and then print them straight onto Fuji’s Instax Mini instant film.

CLASSIC POLAROIDS

The Polaroid 600 cameras are still pretty cheap and plentiful on the ol’ eBay. These are very basic cameras and because you’re getting one second hand, you’re likely to have some varying results, but that can be the fun of Polaroid. Again, they’re great for your guests on the big day to just shoot away. But here’s the tricky part, the original Polaroid 600 film is no longer made, but Impossible Project make their own film for these cameras. It gets expensive though and much more hit and miss as with our experience with Impossible Project film, results vary wildly. But, they also do some really cool films like black and white, gold, multi-coloured and even wood effect! You’ll be paying about £1.75 – £2.00 per shot and that price can rise with the number of ‘dodgy’ shots you might end up with, but it’s all part of the fun! You can even get real 70s vintage Polaroid 600 series camera on eBay too for a table prop/camera double whammy!

FOR THAT LOMO-LOOK

If you’re a fan of Instagram filters and the lo-fi or ‘Lomo’ look, Lomography makes their own instant camera that takes Fuji’s Instax Mini film as well. It’ll give you that signature vignette and with it’s built in flash you’re pretty much guaranteed results in whatever situation you find yourself in at weddings. Great for the photobooth and equally just as good for a few sunny portraits too!

FOR THE TECHNICALLY MINDED

The last option is cameras that take Fujifilm Glossy FP 100C Instant CN Film. This is another Fuji film, similar to the Instax above but offers bigger shots and more creativity with camera choices. The good news about this film is it’s cheap and plentiful. This is the film we use at all our weddings and you can buy any Polaroid camera in the 100-400 series off eBay – which is a lot of camera choice! They are range-finder cameras which simply means to focus you match a split screen image until they overlap and is one of the easiest methods of focusing. We’d say these are best for some more arty/fun shots as these cameras typically don’t have flashes for photobooths. With this film, you’ll be paying about £1-£1.20 per photo which is still a healthy price point.

Our advice is go with what your friends and family are likely to most easily be able to use. If they’re technological wizards and creative, go for cameras taking Fuji FP-100C film. If you’ve got mostly people with trousers up to their nipples, maybe just go with the easiest to use which in this case would be the Instax Wide 210. Or… we offer Polaroid packages too, if, y’know, you don’t trust your guests to not cut heads off!

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